1853 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE CONCERNING BIRD'S FORT

The following article is from the front page of THE STANDARD, Clarksville, Red River, Texas, Volume 10, Saturday, June 4,1853, Charles De Morse

Editorial Correspondence of the Standard

Dallas, May 8th, 1853

(NOTE: Charles De Morse is known as "The Father of Texas Journalism," founding North Texas' first newspaper, THE STANDARD, in the 1850s)

DEAR SIR - I have just returned from Tarrant County, and find the city of the Three Forks (Dallas' old nickname, as it is situated near the three forks of the Trinity River) alive with a new excitement and a creditable one. The temperance spirit has broken out afresh and the Division of the Sons is renewed, and the new (illegible) is the principle topic of conversation. The Division organized by electing B.W. Stone C.P., J.W. Latimer W.A., S.B. Pryor P.W.P., C.P. Nicholson R.S., W.W. Peake A.R.S., W.C. Murphy F.S., J.C. McCoy Conductor, W.J. Dyer A.C., A.D. Rice Treasurer, Adam Guthrie Sentinel. Dr. B.F. Hall is in town and has given two services today to a crowded hall. He gives a lecture on temperance tomorrow evening, at the request of the Sons.

Since my last from Johnson's Station, I made a trip by appointment with Micajah Goodwin, Esq., one of the eldest and best settlers of this region, to visit the locality of Bird's old Fort, the first settlement in Tarrant county in September, 1841. (The area De Morse refers to here is the original Johnson Station, located today just north of I-30 and SH360 in Arlington. Goodwin's wife is the first buried in the old cemetary on the east side of SH360. A historical marker commemorates this fact and the grave is the one surrounded by old sandstones.) It was a daring enterprise of the little band who then pushed out into the Indian country, and had to haul all their supplies from Bonham (in 1841 called Fort Inglish). Bird took with him into the wilderness 19 families, of whom 25 were men. They built several houses and enclosed three of them with a stockade. In January, 1842, they were ordered off by the agent of the Peters Colony and were thus broken up. One of the company was killed by the Indians while cutting a road through the timber.

Anxious to see all the noted localities historically connected with the first settlement of the country, before every vestige of their primitive appearance is effaced by the hand of improvement, I met Mr. Goodwin, and accompanied by the member from Palestine, proceeded to his house on Friday, and remaining the next morning as we set out for the fort, all of us to look at the locality and gone to fish in the lake by which it was situated. Of our party were two Methodist Preachers who got to Mr. Goodwin's just before night on Friday, and they reminded Mr. Goodwin in that seven years before when he had just unloaded his wagon where his house now stands, a Circuit rider came and spent that night with him, and in the morning pushed across a prairie following a trail in the grass secretly perceptible seeking a remote settlement upon the river (the West Fork of the Trinity, between present day Collins and SH360). The boldness of that servitude in the situation of the country at the time, made an impression upon his mind which had never been effaced, and the recital of it as he pointed over the prairie and spoke of the dim track, untravelled and wild, elevated the true wardship of the Cross. I regret that I did not think to ask the name of this pioneer of religion. The regular Circuit Preacher who travelled with me told me that the West Fork which we had to cross, troubled him more than all else in his tour of duty, frequently having to swim it, and the current being rapid. This time we got across nicely without wetting ourselves, and about a mile from it, on a level prairie, we came upon the margin of a beautiful lake in the shape of a crescent, about three hundred yards wide in the centre and coming to a point at either end. It is the handsomest sheet of water I have seen in Texas, large enough to admit of admirable sport in the way of sailing and fishing. As we got opposite the centre of the lake, we saw upon the other side, perched upon a limb, a Bald Eagle, which as we got near, extended its wings and went out of sight. Mr. Goodwin informed me that the place was frequented by both the Grey and the Bald Eagle. The lake is, in Summer, three to four feet deep, but from the Spring rains, perhaps seven or eight feet deep in the Spring. It has a gravelly bottom, clear water, and abounds in fish. Within this area enclosed by the semicircular water, a high point of land puts in probably fifteen feet higher than the surrounding prairie. This land was originally all timbered, but close upon the lake the timber had been cut down by Bird's men, probably as a measure of protection as well as utility, and the land has been put to cultivation. Upon this a young growth had sprung up. None of the structures of the fortification remain now, but a new settler has put up a house, from which he was absent when we were there. No land however is in cultivation yet and the place looks much as tho' no one had been there to change the aspect which time has given it since the first Pioneers left it. Fire from the burning of the grass has affected the houses and the picketing which enclosed them, but we could trace the places where they stood, and the line of the enclosure, which was near the centre of the point, close upon the water. Bird is dead; died in Titus county, in peaceful country, and the place would now, years after its settlement, still repose in lonely beauty but for the cabin lately put up. At the far edge of the prairie but far over, about a mile from the lake a farm has been opened. At times the lake is literally covered with ducks, and geese. As we rode around the outside to get within the semicircle, some Didappers swam along near us, and near one of the points we rode in and driving them closely, they dived under the water and disappeared. Bear grass with the stems full of flowers, Verbeva and Prickly pair [sic], and sundry flowers, for which there is no name, were growing upon the vacated land, and I passed my time in groping over the ground, and examining the flowers and the lake, whilst my companions fished; our horses in the meanwhile grazing at leisure upon the fresh grass. We whiled away the time till mid-day and then returned to Mr. Goodwin's carrying back some blue cat fish. Passed the evening with our hospitable friend, who has a most lovely place, with timber and prairie nicely proportioned, a clear running creek beside him, a jewel of a little valley between him and the creek, covered with luxurious mesquite grass, which I am sure our horses thought a Paradise, and around him, south and east, the prairie rises into a hill, from which the view is inspiring, and yet any distant readers will hardly appreciate that this man wishes to sell out and move to the edge of the Grand Prairie to have unlimited verge of grazing for stock. One would think that he had room enough here, to look out across the vast plain south of him, but he feels that he may be cramped after awhile. [Here, De Morse quotes lyrics from a song by Hoffman, which I've omitted] I should mention that this place is still in the Cross timbers, that is to say the portion of which is not in the prairie. We noticed some Spring wheat planted in March, which was doing well, and would make a fair crop. Mr. Goodwin says he never fails to make 40 or 50 bushels of corn to the acre, and on two acres of corn sown in wheat, last spring made 49 bushels.

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